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Netflix Testing 4K Videos, Wants to Bring You Ultra HD Streaming

We’ve pretty much accepted that 4K is the next frontier in home television. However, there are several barriers to entry - in addition to the exorbitant prices of the 4K television models available so far, there’s very little content shot at UHD resolutions.

But Netflix is gearing up to fix that problem. The company has posted 4K test videos, with several Ultra HD offerings at different frame rates appearing on the site. Speaking to Gigaom, a Netflix spokesperson said the company “hopes to launch Ultra HD next year.” The statement confirms CEO Reed Hastings’ recent claim that “[Netflix] wants to be one of the big suppliers of 4K next year.”

Earlier this year, Netflix’s Neil Hunt said that its break-out original show House of Cards was shot primarily in 4K, meaning we can probably expect to see Kevin Spacey’s mug in super-high resolution pretty soon. The catch? 4K files are necessarily huge, and could mean laggy streaming for those without a crazy fast Internet connection.